Thursday, March 11, 2010

200!

Here are some facts:

-It's a mini-series
-It's obviously going to be way too long on the first draft
-Flashbacks are inevitable in an "epic"
-I cannot grow tired of this story because it has so many twists

It's been a while since I've written about my experience with this screenplay and much has happened since I last wrote. For instance, I cannot explain why but I'm writing songs for it as if it were a musical - perhaps because some other part of my brain is composing a musical about it. The songs aren't bad and it does help to keep the mind occupied so that other parts may do their creative magic.

I've passed page 200 now. In screenplay time, this would calculate out to approximately 3 hours. There are many scenes with little dialog and so the description takes up more space than the action, and in some case, the opposite is true. Other scenes seem to be entirely dialog driven. Here my fear is a "play" and not a screenplay.

The difference? Screenpalys are visually driven while plays are dialog driven. My film professors used to say: If it can be told without words, do it! (I paraphrase here.)

I'm now on the third day of the story, which takes place during a week - the week during which England enters the War with Germany. It strands a group of friends in New England who have traveled here from all over the world to celebrate a supreme-socialite's surprise birthday bash (enough alliteration for you? - no? I'll keep trying).

The last main character has been introduced, Day Two, and another conflict has been induced which affects half of the lead characters. Now they'll begin to "cross-germinate" their troubles and I haven't even gotten to the murder yet!

I suppose it's a soap opera, but almost any novel or movie can be boiled down to it. Look at Jane Austen or DuMaurier, Michael Faber, Yukio Mishima, all of whom I love. This screenplay is my Merhant Ivory tribute.

After page 200? I keep plugging on and will cut later. The story comes first, then the form.

Back to writing for 1 hour before work! (Are you writing?)